So you have a bowl of cream, milk, and sugar, and you want to turn it into ice cream. What are your options? You could just throw it into the freezer for a while, but you’d just get a frozen block of sweet cream — not exactly ice cream. What’s missing? The secret ingredient: air.
Ok, so what if you threw it into the freezer, but every fifteen minutes you took it out and stirred it with a fork? Now you have something resembling ice cream. Not anything you could really call good ice cream, but at least it has air mixed in with the other ingredients now.
What if you stirred it up every five minutes instead? Then the ice cream would be a little better. What about every 2 minutes? Or every 30 seconds? Or what if you just crawled into the freezer, shut the door from the inside, and kept stirring continuously? Now you’ve got something resembling good ice cream! (and hypothermia)
When you put the mix into an ice cream machine, the inside wall of the bowl is the coldest part, so tiny bits of the mix freeze there and form crystals. The machine’s dasher comes by and scrapes that tiny bit of frozen mix off the side of the bowl, making room for more mix to freeze there, and form more crystals. The faster the dasher moves, the more crystals you get, and the smaller they are. Which is why good ice cream has lots and lots of tiny little crystals, and bad ice cream (like the kind you made when you stirred it every fifteen minutes) has fewer crystals, and each one is larger. If the crystals are large enough, you start to feel them on your tongue, and it feels icy rather than smooth.
Last year for my birthday, a friend gave me one of those Ice Cream Balls that you roll around on the ground to make ice cream. The plastic ball has two openings: one goes to a metal canister that you pour the mix into, and the other goes to the open space inside the ball where you can add ice and rock salt. The ice essentially surrounds the metal canister where the mix is, so it works the same way as an ice cream machine. The mix freezes against the side of the metal, forming crystals. But the dasher in this case is human-powered, when you open it and scrape down the sides of the canister. The ice cream comes out with a pretty uneven consistency, but I had to admit, when we tried it while camping one hot weekend, it was a lot better than I expected, and we ate it all up!
The salt, by the way, lowers the freezing point of the ice water from 32 F (0 C) to around -6 F (-21 C). If you tried to make ice cream without the salt, the ice wouldn’t be cold enough to freeze the mix, because the milk and sugar both lower the freezing point (so does alcohol — use too much, and your ice cream won’t freeze). When I opened up the ball to add more ice, I poured out the water while straining the remaining ice with my fingers. WOW. My fingers were instantly frozen. It was a LOT colder than normal ice water, and I won’t be doing that again.
But let’s talk about real-deal ice cream machines.
I’m gonna just come right out and say this. There’s no way to get around it. My ice cream machine is the Lello 4080 Musso Lussino. There, I said it. Yep, it’s expensive. Like $700 expensive (it was $600 when I bought it four years ago, but still). I wanted the best machine I could get, and even after four years, I’m convinced this is still the one. It makes 1.5 quarts in about 30 minutes, which is pretty much the same as all the home machines. But there are differences.
- The entire machine is stainless steel. The case, the freezing bowl, even the dasher. No plastic moving parts.
- It has a built-in compressor so it freezes as it churns. No bowls to freeze overnight, and if you have an ice cream party like I did the other day, you too can make nine (or more) batches of ice cream back-to-back. Even if you make just one batch, you can make it any time you want.
- It has a strong 100-watt motor to drive the dasher, which spins at a super fast 80 revolutions per minute.
- The motor is on the bottom, not the top. When the motor is on the top, you can’t lift off the lid without lifting off the motor and the dasher as well. To get around this, some machines have a little chute you can pour things like M&Ms down. Since the dasher on this one is driven by a motor in the base, the plastic lid is the full diameter of the bowl and can be removed at any time, to add ingredients or to just watch how it’s all coming together.
- The machine just looks cool, and it makes fantastic ice cream.
- On the negative side, it’s bigger, weighs 38 pounds (17 Kg), and doesn’t have a removable bowl for cleaning. I keep it on the counter and clean it with a sponge in about two minutes, so those aren’t problems for me, but I’ve heard other people complain about them. Oh, and did I mention it’s expensive?
But there are a lot of good machines in the $50-250 range too. All of them will make ice cream, and most of them will make good ice cream. But in case you don’t want to spend $600-700 on an Italian ice cream machine, here are some other options. Some use a coolant-lined bowl that must be pre-frozen at least 8 hours (many people say 24 hours) and some have a built-in compressor freezer like mine.
Machines with a coolant-lined freezer bowl:
These machines are fairly inexpensive. They tend to have plastic parts, and bowls that have to be pre-frozen, but many people say they work well if you’re not making a lot of ice cream and don’t mind having to keep the bowl in the freezer. They tend to have dashers that spin at slower speeds compared to the Musso Lussino’s 80 RPM. The Cuisinart ICE-20 seems to be a good entry-level machine and is very popular.
- Around $50.
- 1.5 Quarts, 10 pounds (4.5 Kg).
- Coolant-lined bowl that must be pre-frozen. Additional bowls are around $30.
- 50 watt motor with plastic parts.
- 38 RPM (from my very unofficial testing).
- Very popular. About half the authors of the ice cream blogs I checked are using it. The other half are using the ICE-50BC with the built-in compressor freezer (see below).
- Made in China.
- Edit: There is now a newer model available, the Cuisinart ICE-21
- Around $70.
- 2 Quarts, 12 pounds (5.5 Kg).
- Coolant-lined bowl that must be pre-frozen. Additional bowls are around $45.
- Plastic parts.
- Made in China.
KitchenAid KICA0WH Ice Cream Maker Attachment:
- Around $70.
- 2 Quarts, 7 pounds (3 Kg).
- Requires a KitchenAid stand mixer ($200+).
- The attachment is basically just the coolant-lined freezer bowl that attaches to the stand, and a plastic dasher assembly that attaches to the mixer.
- Since the bowl is open on top, the ice cream is always visible and it’s easy to add ingredients.
- Made in the USA.
Machines with a built-in compressor freezer and plastic parts:
These machines are more expensive because of the compressor, but give you more freedom to make as much ice cream as you want, when you want it. They tend to have stronger motors, but with plastic parts, and tend to have dashers that spin at slower speeds compared to the Musso Lussino’s 80 RPM. The Cuisinart ICE-50BC is very popular and seems like a good compromise between size and price. Although two of the machines are called “gelato” machines, they’ll definitely make ice cream as well — and for that matter, any of the “ice cream” machines listed on this page will make gelato (or sherbet, or sorbet) too.
- Around $190.
- 1 Quart, 33 pounds (15 Kg).
- Built-in compressor freezer, 160 watt motor, plastic parts, and a removable bowl.
- Made in China by Lello.
- Around $250.
- 1.5 Quarts, 33 pounds (15 Kg).
- Built-in compressor freezer, plastic parts, and a removable bowl.
- Very popular. About half the authors of the ice cream blogs I checked are using it. The other half are using the ICE-20 with a freezer bowl (see above).
- Made in China.
- Around $400.
- 2 Quarts, 43 pounds (19.5 Kg).
- Built-in compressor freezer, 235 watt motor, plastic parts, and a removable bowl.
- Made in China by Lello.
Machines with a built-in compressor freezer and stainless steel parts:
Like the machines with plastic parts above, these have a built-in compressor and stronger motors, but the models below have stainless steel parts. The 4080 Musso Lussino I have also runs at a much faster 80 RPM. If you’re serious about making ice cream, one of these may be what you need. Both machines are made in Italy by Musso (and distributed in the USA by Lello) and seem very durable because of their stainless steel assembly.
- Around $700.
- 1.5 Quarts, 38 pounds (17 Kg).
- Built-in compressor freezer, 100 watt motor, faster dasher 80 RPM, stainless steel parts, and a non-removable bowl.
- Large see-through lid that can be removed any time while churning.
- Made in Italy by Musso, distributed by Lello.
- Around $1,100.
- 2 Quarts, 72 pounds (33 Kg).
- Built-in compressor freezer, stainless steel parts, and a non-removable bowl.
- Similar in design to the Musso Lussino, but bigger and heavier, and makes ice cream about twice as fast as all the other machines on this page.
- Made in Italy by Musso, distributed by Lello.
Machines using ice and salt:
These are the “old style” machines, but they still make good ice cream, and they make a lot more of it than the machines above. These two in particular seem to be made of good quality parts like stainless steel and wood. Of course, they’ll make a bit of a mess and you’ll need to buy ice and rock salt, but they should work well for large picnics outside, with or without electricity.
White Mountain 4-Quart Electric Ice Cream Maker:
- Around $160.
- 4 Quarts, 16 pounds (7.5 Kg).
- Electric motor, stainless steel parts, and a wooden tub.
- Some reviewers say it’s loud.
- Made in China.
So get a machine and start making ice cream!
You’ve got options from the $50-70 freezer bowl types, to the $200+ compressor types, to the $160-170 ice and salt types. Or even free, with nothing but a bowl and a fork! :-)
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I have a Williams Sonoma WS 994 Italian made ice cream maker and I need to replace the paddle. I can’t find any information on it. Any suggestions?
So I stopped in the middle of reading this article (actually, right at the Cuisinart ICE-50BC) to go check if that’s the kind that David Lebovitz has, then I went to Amazon and ordered it. Just like that. That’s a pretty big spontaneous order for me, but I think it’s time. I’ve been using the Kitchenaid attachment, and while it’s treated me well, I just want to make more ice cream than that! Thanks for the information and inspiration!
excellent roundup of the ice cream machine options out there!
my dream machine is the one you use… the musso lussino or musso mini…
i currently use the frozen bowl method, the cuisinart ICE30BC. I’ve had great results though the dasher seems annoyingly cheap and plastic, though it still does the job.
can’t wait to upgrade one day to an ice cream maker with a built in compressor!
thanks for sharing this!
lyndsay :)
Lydia: great to hear that you bought an ice cream machine! Let us know how it works out — I see a lot of people using that machine and it sounds like a good one.
Russell
How did you check the rpm? I’m interested in the nemox 2500 which has 63 rpm.
Howard: I wasn’t able to find official numbers for the motor speeds, so I did it the hard way. I shot a video of the dasher spinning on my own machine, and then slowed it down and counted the number of revolutions per second myself. Then I found a couple of good closeup videos of some of the cheaper machines, and did the same with them. It’s not perfect, but even without counting I could see there was a huge difference in speeds.
Russell
ice cream machine can be a little challenging sometime. Once you make it and it comes out at the right texture, then remember your speeds and timing for the future and that will help
Hey Russell,
I’ve been inspired by your enthusiasm and after a weekend of wanting vanilla ice cream for a topping and no shops being open that we need a machine. I’m only interested in the entry level to see if we’ll use before investing in higher end option. I have a kichenaid mixer so was going to get that. After reading your and a few other blogs, the cuisanart comes in on par or better. Have you done any more ‘research’ since you wrote this which would sway you either direction?
By the way, one article I read said that the two machines will give different results due to the fact that the cuisinart mixer device moves, whereas the kichenaid bowl moves. The article said the bowl moving produces more ice crystals, less smooth results. Your opinion greatly appreciated.
Hi Tammy,
Glad you’re thinking about getting a machine! I think the machines listed on this page are still the main ones being used, but I haven’t done any research lately to be sure. A quick check just now of Cuisinart’s site shows that they now have an ICE-21 model that seems to be very similar to the ICE-20, so it’s probably just the latest version of that one. And they have another 2-quart model called the ICE-35 that looks similar. Otherwise they still have the 30 and 50 I mentioned also.
As for the quality being affected by a different part spinning (the bowl or the dasher), it’s an interesting question I’ve wondered myself, but haven’t tested. I can’t really think why it would make a difference. In either case, the ice cream is being applied to the side of the (cold) bowl and then being scraped off by the dasher. And actually more ice crystals is better than fewer — the more tiny crystals you have, the smoother the texture. But maybe there’s something else going on that I’m not aware of.
One thing though, I think you have it backwards as to which ones move which way. For the KitchenAid attachment, the bowl is fixed, and the dasher moves since it’s connected to where you’d normally put the beaters. For the Cuisinart models, the ICE-20 and ICE-30BC both have bowls that spin on a motor at the bottom of the machine, and the dasher is held in place by the clear plastic cover on top. The ICE-50BC, with the built-in compressor, has a simple metal “bucket” that’s fixed, and a motor arm on top that spins the dasher.
I’m pretty sure the two Lello “Gelato” machines have dashers that spin also, since they both have motor arms that hang over the top of the bowl. The more expensive Lello machines have dashers that are spun by a motor at the bottom of the built-in bowl, and the cover can be removed while freezing without affecting the dasher.
Good luck!
Russell
Hi Russell,
Thanks for your advice, always appreciated! I went with the Kitchenaid attachment as I found a great deal with the bowl, the dasher and two recipe books for less than I can get anything else. I’ll let you know how we go here.
In the meantime, if you wanted to see the reports I referenced above, I thought I’d pass along the links:
The article specifically with the comment “Cook’s Illustrated, in another article, commented that the KitchenAid produces something to the effect of creamier, smoother ice cream than others because in others, the bowl spins, not the paddle. The KitchenAid works the opposite I guess that makes the difference, but I can’t comment on the veracity of that statement since I don’t have the KitchenAid ice cream maker yet.” came from http://ask.metafilter.com/97708/blame-it-on-the-food-network.
Cooks Illustrated September 1, 2010 http://www.cooksillustrated.com/equipment/overview.asp?docid=25989
I know given your detail orientation that you’d probably research it!
Many thanks!!!
Hey, I just bought the Musso Pola 5030 and I noticed that it had (of course) a european plug. Did you use a converter or just get a traditional european to US plug? Radio Shack said I’d ruin my machine if I used one of those. They said because of the 300W, 220V that I’d need a power coverter adapter. I just got the monster machine today :) and don;t want to risk breaking it. Thanks for the info!
Stephanie
PS Mine weighs 72 pounds. Do we have the same model?
Stephanie,
Wow, that’s kinda strange that they’d send you one that was for Europe. I’d definitely check to see if they could correct that.
As for the electricity, there are two issues: the plug, and the voltage it accepts. You can change the plug easy enough with a pin adapter, to change the round European pins to the standard flat American pins. But that doesn’t affect the voltage, and the guy at Radio Shack is correct — you don’t want to run it on American voltage if it’s only designed to run on 220 volts.
I have the smaller one, the Lello 4080 Musso Lussino (45 lbs). On the bottom of mine, there’s a metal plate that says it only accepts “115 V” and “60 Hz”. Or in other words, it only works with the standard voltage here in the States. If yours says it accepts the entire range from 110 (or 115, same thing) to 220, then you’re ok — but if it only accepts 220, then you’ll need a power converter to “step up” the voltage from 110 to 220. The metal plate should also have the amperage it needs — mine says “2.6 A”. The power converter you get has to be rated for the number of amps the machine needs, so be careful about that as well.
Hope you can get it working — looks like a great machine!
Russell
Hi !
Great website, really.
I will be trying to find a good Musso machine in Paris (France). I am just back from Carpigiany Gelato University in Bologna and just can’t wait to produce… and taste.
Although our maestro at Carpigiani, the famous Luciano Ferrari, told me that production process was not entirely involved in the end result, I have seen that best gelato makers in Bologna are using vertical machines -like the old ones- (instead of horizontal batch freezer) where the other difference is also that bowl’s rotating and blade is fixed. So I guess, regarding Tammy’s info, that yes, it should play a role.
There’s a full range in smoothness and structure but those who have tried (and for that have walked quite a bit further from bologna city center) La funivia or Castiglione’s gelato will tend to look for same result.
I can not write more now, I want to read all of your website first ;-)
Mike
I read somewhere that the difference between real Italian Gelato and Ice Cream is not the recipe but the air. Both can contain eggs or not, cream or milk but the key difference is that American ice cream is about 50% air where as Italian Gelato is 10%.
American ice cream also uses a lot more cream, and has ice crystles. Gelato is smoother, dense with a more intense flavor because they use mostly milk not cream, usually no eggs which means its also a lot less fatening.
I also read that real gelato machines are built differently to keep the air out as oposed to ice cream makers that try to put it in. They mix a lot slower to acheive this effect. Probably a different blade design too.
So my question is, can real gelato be made using a freezer bowl? I have never seen a real gelato machine in person.
I know this sounds like splitting hairs, but it’s a texture thing with me. I know lots of people call homemade ice cream gelato, but just because you add a lot of eggs making it a custard dose not make it gelato. The texture is not there.
Is White Mountain is made in the USA anymore? The older machines are, I am not sure about the new machines.
Just got a used Lello 4075. Cannot find any information on this particular model.. any pointers?
John: I don’t know about the 4075, but if it has a built-in compressor like the 4070, you should be able to just turn it on and get it super cold (maybe 15-20 minutes? whenever it’s too cold to touch), start the dasher spinning, and then pour in the mix and start it churning.
When the motor starts slowing down (maybe around 30 min?) turn it off before it comes to a complete halt and transfer it to containers for the freezer. You can either mix in things like candy and nuts at that point, or add them in the last couple of minutes before you take the ice cream out.
Put all removable metal parts, ice cream containers, spoons, and mix-ins like candy, all in the freezer beforehand.
Have fun!
Russell
Hi, I sure need some help. My mother left me an ice cream maker.I don’t know what brand it is & I don’t have instructions! It looks close to the Lello 5030 Musso Pola:, but it has the word, “Micro” and a very small picture of a dolphin by the word. It makes 1.5 quarts.I think she bought it about 15 years ago. White plastic with a stainless steel bowl (cannot remove). It has 2 large paddles that stir. that’s all the info I have.Anyone ever seen one of these with the word “Micro” and a dolphin on it? Thanks!!!
I’m looking for an ice cream maker to take to Myanmar where I currently live. Since I’m not going through Europe, I’m hoping to find one in the US before I leave. Does anyone know if their machine goes all 110 to 220V? As stated above, it says on the machine. (I’ve learned that many electronic devices do both.) I want a low-end machine, like the Cuisinart. Thanks!
Has anyone come across an ice cream machine with a stainless steel bowl that costs less than $500? (Preferably less than $300)?
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Hi Russell,
Thanks so much for your site. To echo everyone else – it really is fab. I am trying to start an ice-cream/ gelato/ sorbet shop and company in Gulu, northern Uganda. I started by just learning how to make ice-cream for myself and to do it I bought the Andrew James Fully Automated Ice-cream maker. However, now I trying to decide what machine to get for more commercial purposes. (I had hoped to start off with the equipment I’ve got, but with the refrigeration issues in the part of the world I am in, not to mention that I have to get my own cream from using a milk-cream separator etc. the process is just to labor intensive to make 1 litre or so at a time.)
So Russell (and others), any recommendations or feedback on a semi-commercial or semi-commercial machine. I’m considering a Chinese (i know I know) Mehen M5C (combined pasteurizer and ice-cream maker) or second-hand Carpigiani equipment. I’ve also emailed, Caprigiani, Lello, Nemox, Musso and De Longhi for quotes but none of them bothered to get back to me! :(
Air? Sure some air. But my research (both direct and reading) finds that air helps mouth feel and covers up lower fat content. But super premium ice cream is (or used to be) partially defined by the low “Overun” and the pints nearing a pound in weight… The difference added by the dasher is not so much the air as the diligent disruption of crystal growth… The smaller the crystals the smoother the ice cream. Gritty mouth-feel (often from a partial thaw) can wreck an otherwise fine recipe and good ingredients. That gritty feel is large and unevenly sized crystals. And your tongue is very sensitive to texture (For instance, isn’t it amazing how small a bit of grit can “stand out” if it is in your food?)
BTY. The dasher also slows freezing by adding kinetic energy. (You can heat a liquid by shaking it – a boring and tiring but informative experiment. Or less easily, melt some ice in a press…) So the machines are working at conflicting purposes: Yes Freeze! No Big Crystals! This means the faster the dasher the more the compressor has to work to out-race the higher input of kinetic energy.
Help! I want to buy a Cuisinart ice-21 in America but will need an adapter i think for Israel 220 volt does anyone know if it will work without adapter or will it work with adapter or transformer. Please only answer this if you have actually done this with the machine and know from experience it works. Thanks
Aviva: My Cuisinart ICE-20 machine says it only supports 120 volts / 60 Hz / 50 watts, and my guess is that the ICE-21 will be the same here in the USA.
It should work with a step-up transformer though. You’ll need to get one that converts 120v/60hz to 220v/50hz and supports 50 watts. Be sure it supports sustained usage, since you’ll be running it for 30-40 minutes at a time. The cheaper, smaller transformers will usually overheat when run longer than a couple of minutes, but the bigger, heavier ones that specifically say they support sustained usage should be fine. Check it with your hand occasionally to be sure it’s not getting too hot.
You may need pin converters also, between the American pins and whatever you’ll need in Israel. The Cuisinart machine is just two parallel flat pins — it doesn’t have a third, round grounding pin.
Russell
We have a HEAVY DUTY transformer here so it should work i guess??? You think it will churn as fast as normal? And thanks for your input!
Aviva,
You’ll need to check the writing on the transformer to make sure it supports the correct voltage and watts. I don’t know if it’ll churn the exact same speed, but it should be close enough.
Russell
I bought the ice cream ball as a housewarming present for our ice cream loving friends. It took us an hour to make 2 small batches for the 4 of us! What is the trick with getting the ice cream out of the middle?? It’s so hard, my husband splashed it all over himself and our friend broke the wooden spoon when he tried! We were left with a thick rim of hard ice cream on the outside and a soupy mess in the middle that we were all fighting over! We all loved the taste, but much harder & messier to use than I anticipated and I read dozens of reviews online before purchasing! Any tips? We used half an half and a bag of cubed ice, and sea salt. Thanks!
I have a Williams-Sonoma 994 Gelato machine with no manual. Does anyone know how to put it all together. :)
Hi Russell, I love your blog!! I inherited an ice cream maker Cuisinart ICE-35. Beautiful vintage design. After 30-40 minutes the motor got so hot, I turned it off but the ice cream was still semi-liquid.
I wasn’t sure if the temperature of the motor was melting the gel of the freezer bowl and therefore my ice cream was not thickenning.
I have never had an ice cream maker so I don’t know if the motor getting hot is normal. I am guessing after 30 minutes running it should get hot.
What has been your experience with it? Thanks!
Hi Monica,
I don’t remember my Cuisinart machine getting hot actually. I don’t know if I actually checked, but I’d think I must have touched it when I removed the motor on top, and it seems like I would have noticed if it was too hot, and included that fact in my review.
And yes, if it’s going for 30-40 minutes and not freezing, something definitely sounds wrong. Make sure you’re freezing the bowl for at least 24 hours, and try to put it at the back of the freezer near the vents — also adjust the freezer’s thermostat to put it on the coldest setting if you can.
It’s also possible there’s something wrong with the motor. Does it appear to be running slowly? Or having trouble turning when you put it all together?
You might also try running a batch with the bowl only filled half way, and see if that makes any difference.
Good luck,
Russell
I am looking for a good 220 volt ice cream maker for Europe.
The DeLonghi GM6000 is the only ice cream/gelato maker I found with a removal stainless steel bowl. You can see the review on YouTube.
Hi Russell
Thank you for all your great advice. I am just curious whether you know anything about the Sage – the one Heston Blumenthal is promoting, the Good Scoop?
Thank you!!
Charlotte
Charlotte,
No, I’m afraid I don’t have any info on the Sage machine. Sorry.
Russell
I have a Lello Musso 4080 that needs a lid. Where-o-where do I find such an animal. I’d be willing to sell it without the lid for a reduced price. The machine is perfect and looks brand new. I got it off a yacht because they were going to throw it out because the lid was damaged in a dishwasher.
Norma,
Fantastic that you got such a great machine! I can’t believe they were going to throw it out just because of the lid. You could actually use it without the lid if you wanted — I doubt it serves any functional purpose other than keeping dust out of the ice cream while it’s operating. Or use plastic wrap.
But I have a feeling it shouldn’t be that hard to get a replacement lid. Lello is the company that imports the Musso ice cream machine into the USA, and you can contact them here:
Lello Appliances Corporation
355 Murray Hill Pkwy, East Rutherford, NJ 07073
(201) 939-2555
Give them a call and see if they can help.
Thanks,
Russell
I think many of you are missing a valuable consideration when making good ice cream. First and most important is to purchase an ice cream freezer that is powerful enough to churn a thick custard mixture to the freezing point.
After wearing out two freezers, I recently purchased a popular brand freezer. My wife mixed our family recipe, a custard formula, cooked it, and I proceeded to start the freezing process we have used in our family for as long as I can remember. Since I was a child we bought a 50 lb. block of ice, put it in a gunny sack, and chipped it on a big flat rock using the flat side of an ax. We have an old family ice cream recipe that is a custard mix and, if cooked carefully, will produce the most wonderful ice cream anyone can imagine.
My recent mistake when purchasing a new freezer was negligence in looking at the power of the motor (watts). The freezing process started as usual; however, the motor quickly started slowing down as the mixture barely started to solidify. In fact, the container’s rotation slowed to the point that I was pushing the can to make it turn at all. It eventually stopped completely, I removed the lid, and the mixture was only slightly starting to freeze–just a thick liquid mess. We quickly determined that the motor wasn’t powerful enough to finish the job so we removed the can, dumped the mixture into an electric blender, dumped the mess into plastic containers, and put them in the refrigerator freezer. Almost ruined our July 4 celebration.
Hi Russell,
I want to start a little organic ice cream business in my country (Costa Rica).
1st I need to start by trying out recipes and selling in organic fairs to see how it goes.
I can’t spend $600 or $800 right now but I do need something that I can use 2 or 3 times a day to start selling and getting known, what do you recommend, it would be for commercial use but obviously I would have very few clients at the beginning.
Thank you so much for your time!
Kristy
Hi,
this is Fanta Sankoh. I want a durable commercial ice cream machine that can be used in Sierra Leone with a 220v.
can anyone advise me on: What can I buy where, in Israel? Prices?
You haven’t mentioned the Cattabriga MTM K20, which is pricier than the Musso models, and weighs about 117 kg. It will do batches between 1.5 litres and 2.5 litres in about 6 minutes. Some commercial companies use it for R&D / prototyping recipes.
Thanks for your information! I live in Spain. How can i find this machine?
I have used the cuisinart ICE-100 with compressor for about four years, and it has worked fine. Have made a couple hundred batches of ice cream, sometimes more than one a day. However, it has recently changed. It now takes forever, and the mix never freezes properly even after a full hour (previously, it was stiff in 40 – 50 minutes). It’s pretty obvious to me that the compressor isn’t working the same as before. I have looked all over the web. There are loads of sites on buying a new one, but nothing on how to get an old one evaluated or repaired. Do you or any readers have an idea where I could start? Thanks in advance for your attention.
Has anyone tried out a Mehen mix 10 or 15 heater. I’ve been playing with my Carpigiani lb200 for the last year or so and pasteurizing 4 litres at a time on my induction hot plate is getting old fast! 3 phase units are overkill.
I realize most folks on this forum are using 1-2 quart units, but I’m looking for anyone out there who’s used both Carpigiani and Emery Thompson units to see which they prefer and why. I’m currently using a Carpigiani and I’m happy with the results but there’s a barely used emery t. for sale nearby which has overrun control meaning it has multiple speeds (mine is single speed).